Botany Bay

About this arrangement

The convict song, in waltz time with a pickup: “Fare-well” comes before the first bar line. Each line of words ends on a long note tied across the bar line, mostly followed by a rest, so counting through the ties is the main job. The tune stays in C position except for the D above the C in bar 10 (“known”). The left hand plays a waltz bass, a bass note then two chords, through C, F and G7.

Practice tip: Count “1 2 3” aloud through the long notes at the end of each line. The two pickup notes always belong to the next line, so breathe before them.

The words

Farewell to old England for ev er Farewell to my old pals as well, Farewell to the wellknown Old Bailey, where I once used to look such a swell.

A short history

Botany Bay is where Captain Cook landed in 1770, and for the next century “Botany Bay” was shorthand for transportation to New South Wales, although the convict ships actually went to Sydney Cove a few miles north. The last convicts arrived in 1868.

The song as we know it came later. It was sung in “Little Jack Sheppard”, a London stage burlesque by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley that opened at the Gaiety Theatre in 1885, with a tune adapted from older street songs, and it crossed to Australia soon afterwards. The lines about the “Old Bailey”, London’s criminal court, and the “light-fingered gentry” show its music-hall origin.

The song also has a nonsense chorus, “Singing too-ral-li-oo-ral-li-ad-di-ty”, sung to the same tune as the verse given here.

Quick facts

Tune

Traditional (English music hall, 1885)

Key

C major

Time signature

3/4

Length

16 bars and a pickup

Tempo

Steadily, crotchet = 108

Difficulty

Level 5: A wider range (piece 149 of 201)

Type

Australian

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers